Home Canning Tips; Researching Hearing, Sight Restoration; Where Income Shrinks; Old Ironsides Restoration; Narrow Networks; History of Library Card Catalog

Monday

Jul 31, 2017 at 12:01 AMJul 31, 2017 at 11:26 AM

Home Canning Tips From the Food Safety Blog A government blog recently published a number of tips for people interested in home canning this summer's produce. The blog lists vegetables with a low acid pHs that are not acidic enough to prevent the growth of botulinum bacteria. Some vegetables in this category include asparagus, green beans, [...]

johnhunter

Home Canning Tips From the Food Safety BlogA government blog recently published a number of tips for people interested in home canning this summer's produce. The blog lists vegetables with a low acid pHs that are not acidic enough to prevent the growth of botulinum bacteria. Some vegetables in this category include asparagus, green beans, and potatoes. The site also provides a list of medical conditions that individuals suffering from foodborne botulism exhibit. To learn more about home canning safety, click on https://www.foodsafety.gov/blog/2017/07/home-canning-and-botulism.html. I wonder if President Trump's budget provides funds for these types of blogs. Just saying.

Military Research Homes In On Vision and Hearing LossAccording to the website Armed with Science, a Defense Department science information site, DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, recently awarded five research grants to develop a high-resolution neural interface as well as to develop systems supporting sensory restoration. Sounds like Star Trek medicine to me. Brown and Columbia Universities as well as the University of California, Berkeley and two additional research facilities will focus on hearing and vision by linking these body functions with the brain to treat sensory loss. To learn more about this fascinating research project, surf over to http://science.dodlive.mil/2017/07/24/darpa-launches-program-that-could-one-day-treat-vision-hearing-loss/. The Pentagon supports this research as part of the Pentagon defense budget appropriation. Your federal taxes at work.

New Research Finds Rising and Shrinking Income Cities The website Wall St 24/7 recently published a list of 10 cities where personal incomes are shrinking the fastest. While some areas of the country are booming, cities such as Peoria, Ill. and New Bern, N. C. are now experiencing dropping personal incomes. The article mentions a number of causes for the decline. Drops in construction, as well as government payroll cutbacks, caused an average income drop of $1,000 in New Bern, N.C. The report also lists 10 cities where rising incomes are the norm. Merced, Calif., for example, experienced an income growth of 14.3 percent from 2008 to 2013. To learn more about income levels in these 20 cities, click on http://247wallst.com/special-report/2015/07/14/10-cities-where-incomes-are-growing-and-shrinking-the-fastest/2/.

Old Ironsides Restoration Nearly CompleteEvery school kid knows that the USS Constitution, a Revolutionary War vessel, is the oldest ship still commissioned in the U.S. Navy. The ship has now returned to its birth in Boston after a two-year restoration that included replacement of 100 hull planks with the required caulking as well as repair of the ship's rigging. To access a picture of the ship as well as the resulting account of the renovation, visit http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=101588. Some military hardware becomes icons for the nation. Any visit to Boston should include a visit to the Charlestown Navy Yard.

Cancer Patients With Inexpensive Health Plans May Be Denied Access To Top-Tier Cancer CentersConsumers who choose less expensive health insurance plans may forego access to top-tier physicians caused by a 'narrow network' health plan limitation. These 'narrow network' plans may systemically exclude treatments by NCI-affiliated physicians. This possible exclusion may adversely impact treatment of rare or difficult-to-treat cancers. To learn more about this health issue, click on https://medlineplus.gov/news/fullstory_167327.html. Just so you know.

A New Book Tells The Story of The Library Card CatalogA Library of Congress employee recently published a book on the history of the card catalog. According to author Peter Devereaux, the card catalog proved to be one of the most versatile and durable technologies in history. Devereaux relates the story of S. N. Cramer, a Sumerian historian who found a piece of a cuniform tablet about 2 ½ inches by 1 ½ inches that served as a clay library index card. Cramer found the tablet near the ruins of Nippur and dated the tablet to 2000 BCE. For those contemporary students used to looking up references on a library computer, this book provides a picture of how earlier societies organized information. To read the interview, click on http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2017/07/inquiring-minds-the-unheralded-story-of-the-card-catalog/. And so it goes.